Death sentences for 21 after football riot
AN EGYPTIAN court has sentenced 21 people to death on charges related to one of the world’s deadliest incidents of football violence, which killed 74 mostly teenage fans of Egypt’s most popular sports club last year.
The verdict comes after a day of clashes between security forces and protesters opposed to Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi that left seven dead.
Fans of football club al- Ahly, whose stands were attacked by rival club Al-Masry in the February 1 incident in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, had promised more violence if the accused did not receive death sentences.
But last night eight people, including two policemen were killed outside the Port Said prison where 73 of the defendants were held. Officials say that the police were killed when relatives of the prisoners tried to break in to free them. At least 75 people were injured in the violence outside the jail before armoured personnel carriers and military police were deployed to quell the violence.
In Cairo, families of the victims shouted ‘‘Allahu Akbar!,’’ or God is great, after the judge read out his verdict. One man fainted, while others wailed and cried in disbelief as they carried pictures of the young men killed in the football riot.
Judge Sobhi Abdel-Maguid said in his statement read live on state TV that he would announce the verdict for the remaining 52 defendants on March 9.
Among those on security officials.
Many die- hard football fans, known as Ultras, have taken a leading role in protests over the past two years. Both Al-Ahly Ultras and Al-Masry Ultras widely believe that former members of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak helped instigate the attack, and that the police at the very least were responsible for gross negligence.
It is not clear what kind of evidence, if any, was presented to the court to back up claims that the attack had been orchestrated by regime officials.
As is customary in Egypt, the death sentences will be sent to the nation’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for approval,
trial
are
nine though the court has the final say on the matter.
All of the defendants – who were not present in the courtroom for security reasons – have the right to appeal the verdict.
The melee was the world’s deadliest soccer violence in 15 years.
In the days leading up to the verdict, Al-Ahly fans warned of bloodshed and ‘‘ retribution’’ if death sentences were not handed down.
The violence began after AlMasry, the Port Said home team, won the match 3-1. Its fans stormed the pitch, attacking Cairo’s AlAhly fans.
Authorities
shut
off the stadium lights, plunging it into darkness. In the exit corridor, the fleeing crowd pressed against a chained gate until it broke open. Many were crushed under the fleeing crowd.
Survivors of the riot described a nightmarish scene in the stadium. Police stood by doing nothing, they said, as the home fans attacked the rival club’s supporters, stabbing them and throwing them off the stands.
Al-Ahly survivors said supporters of Al-Masry carved the words ‘‘Port Said’’ into their bodies and stripped them while beating them with iron bars.
While there has long been bad blood between the two rival teams, many blamed police for failing to perform usual searches for weapons at the stadium.
The soccer fans, known as Ultras, are among Egypt’s rowdiest and are proud of their hatred for the police, who were the backbone of Mubarak’s authoritarian rule. The Ultras then directed their chants against the military rulers who took over after Mubarak’s ouster in 2011 until Morsi came to power in elections last June.
Less than three months before the Port Said melee, the Ultras were engaged in deadly clashes with police near the Interior Ministry headquarters in Cairo that killed 42 people.